~Tis National 'Wear An Apron Day'!~

Now this is a holiday that I can get into! Clean or dirty...... store bought or handmade....... frilly or simple...... aprons are just the best!!!!!! They have so many uses, but two of my favorites are to snuggle little children in when they come to you with little 'ouchies', and the articles that one can find in the pocket of an apron. These are better than what you could discover about someone by going through their purse. Pockets of aprons carry so many telling things. I have an apron I wear all the time when I am home. In the pocket of my apron this morning is a semi-clean tissue, some Chapstick, kernels of chicken scratch, and a quarter I found on the road out to my mailbox a few weeks ago. Must mean that I am boring - nothing but common items in my apron pockets.

My mother recently gave me a treasure that I will always cherish. 'Back in the Day', when she was in high school, apparently they gave out pins for 'homemaking' class. When she was a senior she earned this pin for attending all four years of homemaking education. The pin attaches in two places - and creates a chain in between in which two other charms slide - a key charm and a scroll charm. This is one of my favorite earthly possessions and I let it reside on my apron. I just love it!
Call me sentimental, old-fashioned, or just a plain simpleton, but I wish they had these programs still. Our children need to learn these things at home, but there are some that would benefit from homemaking classes during their schooling years.

So go put on an apron - and celebrate 'National Wear an Apron Day!' You might just feel a little more domestic in your duties today!

Blessings on your apron wearing day ~ Shanda

~Living Civil War History Quilting Class~

I am just so excited!!!!! Starting this Fall 2011, I am teaching a Living History Civil War Quilting Class. I am 'commissioned' to teach two battles each year at my local quilt store. This fall will be the Battle of Bull Run along with the quilt pattern "Prairie Bound" from Country Sampler in Spring Green, Wisconsin (oh, and by the way, I LOVE this quilt shop!). I am working on a quilt for each of the classes, have been researching 'hardtack', and am sewing on a civil war dress as I am going to be teaching this quilting class in period costume. The fabrics above are for the first quilt. Aren't they yummy? The dress I am working on 'tis the one on the left.

I finished quilting a quilt that my mother has been working on for sometime and mailed it to her today for Mother's Day. She cross stitched all these blocks and embroidered family member names on each square. Quite the project. She stitched, I pieced and quilted, and now she will finished with the binding. She lives in Illinois, so God bless the mail system!!!!!


Also, short post I know, but I have a 'find' to decorate. Pewter? Redware? Crocks? Quilts? These are delimas that must be solved. What do you think? Suffice it to say that this has found a home in my dining area, and I am so pleased with it that I can't bring myself to decorate this work of art. It is beauty in itself.



Enjoy your bounty this evening in the sunset and blessings on your slumber!

~Shanda~

~Pantry Boxes, Cookbooks, and Projects - Oh, My!

Boy, have I been going through the sponge brushes!





Whew! These are my latest project to get done - I have had these unfinished paper mache' pantry boxes sitting in my laundry room for nigh unto 8 months. I painted, sanded, and stained them and they are now ready to put away. Let's see where they were placed around the house.....

In a grouping on the dry sink:


On top of the pie safe in the Entry:


On top of a dresser in the spare room:


Near a night light in another bedroom:

In the kitchen sink window area:



And on top of my dresser:

So glad they are all done and not taking up space on top of the washer anymore!

I also imbibed in some interesting cookbooks on Amazon - they are really interesting, if only for the verbiage they are written in and description of ingredients:


And last but not least, this evening is my monthly 'Finish-It-Friday' Night with the girls - we all plan our projects so carefully to get maximum benefit of serious sewing time. I have three projects that I may work on this evening - finishing the quilt binding on my log cabin quilt (notice Abe Lincoln as my backing - get it? Abe Lincoln/Log Cabin? - I thought it went together nicely):


Or possibly working on a counted cross stitch project started in 2008!


And last, I just started this wool rug hooking kit - this is my first, so I am learning:


So much to do and so little time. BUT, I have finished a bed and all my pantry boxes, plus a dozen other projects since the beginning of the year, so I am making some headway.

Blessings on your day and hold your family ever so close - practice patience and understanding and we will all be the better for it. I wrote our son an email this morning, wished my Aunt a Happy Birthday, and now I think I will go call our daughter. All live so far away, wish I could have them for dinner. Nice weekend expected here in the Pacific Northwest - I may just plant my peas tomorrow!

~Shanda~

~Tis a Blessed Bed!~

It is finished - after two years, painting a half dozen pieces of wood for color samples, sanding, painting, moving kids out of the house, moving kids back into the house, more sanding, making a canopy frame, sanding, painting, and even more sanding, last night we slept in our NEW (used) $17 thrift store bed. I kid you not - I found this solid hardwood, no veneer, colonial four-poster bed at a thrift store for $17. (Really, it was $24.99, but I had a coupon.) Not a whole lot of reading this blog, just a few photo explanations:

Bed right out of the thrift store - I had my DH help me set it up in the garage so I could make sure everything fit together and all the pieces were there. It definitely needed to be refinished, scratches, dings, dents - it was just a nightmare:

Then the bed got taken apart and stored in the garage for a year. After a year it got hauled up to the bonus room so my DH could make the canopy frame for it -

Then I took over with sanding for eternity, and painting in near zero degree temps in the garage. The final step though was applying the antiquing medium - if that stuff doesn't get wiped off within the right time, gets too cold, or the wind dries it out, too bad - gotta start all over again:

Then it finally got moved back upstairs in our room and assembled. Saturday late afternoon my DH was able to start putting it all back together, drilling:

and lining everything up:

And then he took a nap:

But I think he deserved it:

~'Tis the 'New Bed' Eve~

I promised it was coming. It has been way below normal temps here. I am refinishing this bed in the garage. Very chilly weather, highs in the mid-20's. So cold, that I was afraid to put my last coat of paint and then antiquing medium on our bed, so I am a day or two behind. Tomorrow morning it should be warm enough to put last coat of antiquing medium on, and then tomorrow eve it will be moved into place after dear husband can help me move it from the garage to upstairs. Getting so excited. Thank you all for being such dearhearts and showing an increased amount of patience. This bed has been two years in the making - from the thrift store find, to sanding, to having children leave an empty bedroom long enough for me to claim again, to now the final refinishing. Photos coming.......... but this is how it looked right out of the thrift store for $17:


And the next photo will be posted Saturday or Sunday Morning of the final end result. 'Tis a bittersweet time for me. I am so excited, I can't hardly stand it. 'Til Saturday, then. Blessings on your evening...........


Shanda

~A Coverlet Pick Me Up.....~

I went to my favorite store yesterday, Heritage Reflections in Meridian, to spend some money my mother had sent me for my birthday. I just LOVE that place. Anyway, I came home with a woven coverlet square for my dining room table. They really didn't have any left, BUT one of my kindred spirit friends works there and she had one set aside for herself in the back. SHE GAVE HER COVERLET UP TO ME! A true patriot and primitive decorating friend. I love it and I thank Debbie for her sacrifice. What a gal!!!!!!


This is a short post, I am working on a few other projects that will be coming in the next week. I have been busy working on my colonial pencil post bed. Yes, finally, the one I found at the local thrift store for $17. It is being painted and will be set up, photo ready in the next week. I cannot wait, it has been such a long time in the making, bedrooms to be switched around with two kids off to college and rooms to be painted, but the wait for my colonial bed is almost over. Patience is golden they say, so I must have quite a stash being built up somewhere.

Check back in a week for some some photos of before, during and after. Until then, make a pot of your favorite soup today. It is a blustery one in the Pacific Northwest!

Blessings on your day -

Shanda